A Judicious Judge

When
someone’s professional reputation is unfairly smeared in public, it can
be self-defeating to try to mount a defense. Any attempt to fight back
merely spreads the unjust charge farther and wider.

No, I’m not talking about former Illinois
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who stormed national TV talk shows like Tom
Cruise promoting a bad movie. Sleazy politicians deserve whatever they
get, no matter how nice their hair looks.

But former Milwaukee
County Circuit Judge Joe Wall absolutely did not deserve to be
portrayed as an intemperate judge who would belittle defendants with
racist language.

Two of three judges in a state Court of
Appeals decision ordered a new sentencing hearing for a case before Wall, Claiming he used language that was "sarcastic and demeaning" that could suggest "the sentence was imposed at least in part because of race."

The story received wide play because Wall used the term "baby mama" in a pre-sentence conversation with convicted drug dealer Landray Harris. Wall was alluding to the unmarried mother of Harris' 2-year-old child, a woman who attended college and worked to support Harris, who was unemployed.

"where do you guys find these women, really, seriously," Wall asked. Is there a club?" Harris responded that his girlfriend wasn't the club type.

The media love news that can be summed up in a snappy phrase, so they story immediately becaue "The Baby Mama Decision."

A disclaimer: I know Joe Wall personally. He serves on the board of the Benedict Center, a nonprofit agency in Milwaukee that runs an education and drug treatment program as an alternative to incarceration for women in conflict with the law. The executive director of the Benedict Center is Kit Murphy McNally, my wife.

It is because of what I know of Wall personally that I know exactly how he ended up in the middle of this controversy. Unlike Milwaukee County judges who run their courts like assembly lines to fast-track faceless defendants into prison, Wall actually engaged in real conversations with each individual before him. Defense attorneys told Wall it was one of the few times a judge ever treated their clients as human beings and inquired into their lives.

It was in such a conversation that Wall used the phrase "baby mama," two words out of 26 pages of transcript of back-and-forth between the judge and the defendant. Because of Wall's work with the Benedict Center, I also understand how the discussion of the woman in Harris' life came up.

Many of the women who come to the Benedict Center on prostitution and drug charges have been exploited by men throughout their adult lives and frequently through years of childhood sexual abuse.

Wall was talking about a real social phenomenon of black men, many of
whom have been denied legitimate employment as a result of racial
discrimination, learning to rely on the illegal drug trade and the
exploitation of women for their livelihoods.

Addressing Poverty

What’s
truly absurd about Wall being smeared as racist is that he was one of
the few Milwaukee County judges ever to use his position to challenge
community leaders to address the poverty issues that are the root
causes of crime.

Wall spoke extensively throughout the community and
published essays in a local newspaper about the shocking poverty
statistics in Milwaukee County and the willingness of society to throw
away the children of poverty he saw before him as a judge in Children’s
Court.

In one such essay, Wall
called on state and local leaders to spend more on the front end to
prevent crime by making sure children were kept in good health,
received the finest educations possible in safe school environments and
had role models and mentors to support and care about them.

“If
families are failing, and they are, we, the community, need to assume a
larger role in the everyday lives of these children,” Wall wrote. “They
are, at the end of the day, our children, our future.”

Many of Wall’s
judicial colleagues agreed, but they told him he was foolish to go
public with such socially conscious views. It was an open invitation
for some “hang ’em high,” tough-on-crime conservative to run against
him at election time, they said.

The cruelty of the unfair accusation
that Wall had racially demeaned a criminal defendant was compounded
when Wall had to endure the humiliation of being defended by right-wing
radio commentators who rather like racist judges who demean defendants.

Wall, who now works as an assistant U.S. attorney, is one of the few
insiders in the criminal justice system with the courage to speak out
on the need to reform the institutions of society to lift up those born
into poverty instead of beating them down further.

The tragedy would be
if this controversy prevents him from continuing to speak out or
prevent others from hearing what he has to say.

Tags

Joel McNally is a national-award-winning newspaper columnist and a longtime political commentator on Milwaukee radio and television. Since 1997, Joel has written a column for the Shepherd Express where he also was editor for two years.

Comments (2)

I think the judge called it as he sees it the baby...

I think the judge called it as he sees it the baby mama is exactly what she is.She is a low class white girl from the east side with no college education who lives off w2 and sleeps around with every one also having another baby again by a low class drug boy with no job. She is white low class

babydollmore than 9 years ago

Bravo! You so eloquently and accurately summarize...

Bravo! You so eloquently and accurately summarized this whole unfortunate situation. If one were to look at all of the sentencing transcripts of all of the sitting Milwaukee County judges during the time Wall was on the bench, I'm sure his would stand out and consistently reflect the time, careful consideration, and individual attention he gave to each of his cases, each of the defendants who came before him.

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